Vallejo cop-turned-author believes Zodiac still lives

Four decades after the Zodiac killer smeared a trail of blood and mystery onto the collective Bay Area psyche, one Vallejo man believes he knows whodunit.

And unlike other supposed suspects, Lyndon Lafferty's killer is still alive.

"This is not a game. It's not a joke. This is for real," said Lyndon E. Lafferty, a retired California Highway Patrol officer who announced Sunday the publication of his book "The Zodiac Killer Cover-Up."

In the book, due out in several weeks, Lafferty and a team of other law enforcement personnel details 40 years of investigations, painting a seedy world of adulterous judges, corrupt officials and fearful paranoia surrounding the infamous serial killer.

The Zodiac killer is believed to be responsible for at least five homicides, including one in Vallejo and two in Benicia, in the late 1960s. Two others survived attacks by the Zodiac kiler, who sent cryptic messages and codes to the Times-Herald, the San Francisco Chronicle and the San Francisco Examiner. In his correspondence to the news media, the killer claimed to have killed 37 people.

The mystery has inspired countless articles, a couple movies and even regular gatherings by those with theories about the case.

Officially, the Zodiac case is still open in the Vallejo Police Department, and the identity of the killer remains unknown.

Lafferty's obsession was sparked in the summer of 1970 after observing a strange man watching traffic on Interstate 80 on Hunter's Hill. A chance encounter at the rest stop there allowed Lafferty to see the man's resemblance to the composite sketch of the killer every Northern California cop at the time carried in his patrol car, Lafferty said.

What followed next, says Lafferty, now 77, was 40 years of intrigue during which he and his group went so far as digging through this man's trash.

And unlike the prevailing theory, this man was not Arthur Leigh Allen -- the primary suspect in the case. Lafferty and his wife went to school with Allen, he said to a fascinated crowd at Ziao Fraedo's Restaurant.

Allen died in 1992, but Lafferty says his proposed killer did not and, at 90, still lives in Solano County.

The man, who Lafferty did not name, had an alcohol-addled mind and became murderous after learning of an affair between his wife and a superior court judge, Lafferty said.

"He became maniacal, extremely revengeful, and he just looked for classic opportunities to take his revenge on these young couples he found doing, in his opinion, what they weren't supposed to be doing," said Lafferty, referring to sets of victims in various lovers' lanes.

As investigators' magnifying glasses began to focus on this man, they were told by law enforcement top brass -- and this alleged cheating judge -- to ignore evidence and blot the man's name from notes and memories, Lafferty said.

"(The suspect) had the leverage. He had the power over the judge," Lafferty said.

And to complicate Lafferty's investigation, the man's wife befriended his own wife Yvonne, Lafferty said. For a while, the family lived in fear that they would be next -- hence their years of silence.

But now Lafferty hopes his book will allow the man to come forward and at long last turn himself in to face justice.

For more information, including when the book will be out, visit www.thezodiackillercoverup.com.